Upwards’s June celebration is big, a pre-metric seven feet high. So, like any upright abstract painting of that height, it is an object that reflects the observer’s human scale. John Olsen said ‘it is impossible to look at [his paintings] without thinking of a man working, acting and moving behind them’.[1] Others thought of dance. James Gleeson said:

There is a certain kind of dancing in which the conscious mind surrenders its vigilance and the body becomes a vehicle for the transmission of emotion … energy that finds release in spontaneous action [bearing] an intimate relationship with the mood or mental state of the moment. Peter Upwards’s paintings are like the movements of such a dancer.[2]

Upward himself spoke of Japanese Zen calligraphy, American beat poetry, and jazz: ‘Everything is done in one movement … with musical impulse, the same musical impulse as musicians when they improvise. My paintings are a series of chords and notes’. But also of the physical: ‘Like the moment when a high diver cleanly enters the water’.[3]

The title refers to the month in which it was painted—on the studio floor with large brushes in a single uninterrupted campaign—especially for the manifesto exhibition of Abstract Expressionism, 9 Sydney 1961.[4] It was the largest work in the exhibition, and the most characteristic of the new movement.

The previous year, Olsen’s Spanish encounter,[5] nearly as large, mostly black and almost abstract, had been the great art sensation in Sydney, much admired for its raw vitality and untamed energy. June celebration is an abstract paraphrase of a similar painting by Olsen, The procession,[6] which was given by Olsen to Upward.

Daniel Thomas, ‘Peter Upward: June celebration’
in Anne Gray (ed.) Australian art in the National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 2002, p. 253, revised version

[4] Upward titled other works in this format: see, for example, September fifth 1961, pva on board, 137 x 121 cm, The University of Queensland, Brisbane or July tenth 1961, pva on board, 91 x 122 cm, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Sydney. According to Penelope Upward, the painter’s sister, the ‘celebration’ of the title also refers to the June wedding of two artist–friends at which Upward stood witness.

Discussion of the work

Upwards’s June celebration is big, a pre-metric seven feet high. So, like any upright abstract painting of that height, it is an object that reflects the observer’s human scale. John Olsen said ‘it is impossible to look at [his paintings] without thinking of a man working, acting and moving behind them’.[1] Others thought of dance. James Gleeson said:

There is a certain kind of dancing in which the conscious mind surrenders its vigilance and the body becomes a vehicle for the transmission of emotion … energy that finds release in spontaneous action [bearing] an intimate relationship with the mood or mental state of the moment. Peter Upwards’s paintings are like the movements of such a dancer.[2]

Upward himself spoke of Japanese Zen calligraphy, American beat poetry, and jazz: ‘Everything is done in one movement … with musical impulse, the same musical impulse as musicians when they improvise. My paintings are a series of chords and notes’. But also of the physical: ‘Like the moment when a high diver cleanly enters the water’.[3]

The title refers to the month in which it was painted—on the studio floor with large brushes in a single uninterrupted campaign—especially for the manifesto exhibition of Abstract Expressionism, 9 Sydney 1961.[4] It was the largest work in the exhibition, and the most characteristic of the new movement.

The previous year, Olsen’s Spanish encounter,[5] nearly as large, mostly black and almost abstract, had been the great art sensation in Sydney, much admired for its raw vitality and untamed energy. June celebration is an abstract paraphrase of a similar painting by Olsen, The procession,[6] which was given by Olsen to Upward.

Daniel Thomas, ‘Peter Upward: June celebration’
in Anne Gray (ed.) Australian art in the National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra: National Gallery of Australia 2002, p. 253, revised version

[4] Upward titled other works in this format: see, for example, September fifth 1961, pva on board, 137 x 121 cm, The University of Queensland, Brisbane or July tenth 1961, pva on board, 91 x 122 cm, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Sydney. According to Penelope Upward, the painter’s sister, the ‘celebration’ of the title also refers to the June wedding of two artist–friends at which Upward stood witness.